Rangers, Astros Head to Game 7 of Tension-Filled ALCS
In the American League Championship Series, it all comes down to Game 7 on Monday night. Texas Rangers at the Houston Astros. Bruce Bochy against Dusty Baker, both future Hall of Fame managers. Rangers’ Max Scherzer vs. Astros’ Cristian Javier on the mound.
Texas forced the deciding game on Sunday night, pounding Houston 9-2 at Minute Maid Park. Tension lingered after a wild Game 5 on Friday, which saw a benches-clearing fight and the ejections of Baker and Houston pitcher Bryan Abreu.
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“I think you should embrace all of it. That’s why you play the game,” said Bochy, Texas’ 68-year-old manager who’s on the verge of going to the World Series for the fifth time. After losing in the 1998 World Series with the Padres, he won three titles in five years between 2010 and 2014 leading the San Francisco Giants.
“I’m excited, to be honest. I’m really excited,” Bochy said. “I was [excited] this spring when I looked out there and saw the team and the talent that we have both in the position player side and pitching side.”
The Astros are trying to get to the World Series for the third year in a row, all of which have been under Baker. Now 74, Baker finally won for the first time as a manager when his club defeated the Philadelphia Phillies last year in six games.
Texas slugger Adolis García, who was in the middle of Friday’s on-field fracas, hit a ninth-inning grand slam Sunday night that put Game 6 away for the Rangers. In Friday night’s 5-4 Texas loss, García hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning. When he came to bat in the eighth, Houston reliver Abreu hit him on the elbow, starting the fight.
Abreu and Baker were tossed, and on Sunday, Abreu was suspended by Major League Baseball for two games, effective immediately. Abreu appealed, setting a hearing within 48 hours, which made him available for Sunday’s game (he pitched one inning). MLB says they’ll determine by Monday’s game time whether Abreu’s suspension will be upheld and the ruling immediately enforced.
“[Abreu’s suspension being upheld] could be a huge blow,” Baker said. “I thought about using him two innings [Sunday], had the decision been made. You wish you had some final decision about his status. Hopefully, some of this will be postponed and we’ll have him Monday, as well.”
In this ALCS, the Astros haven’t yet won a home game. They swept the three games at Globe Life Field to dig out of an 0-2 hole created by losing the first two games. In a real statistical oddity, the Astros have excelled on the road, going 56-30 since the start of the regular season, and have tallied five more wins away from home during the postseason.
Their home-road splits are almost impossible to explain.
“Obviously we wanted to win some games at home, but it didn’t happen,” Bochy said. “And they played unbelievably on the road. Look at their record.”
The Astros have been to this juncture in the ALCS recently. Under Baker in 2020, they lost the first three games of that ALCS to the Tampa Bay Rays in the Petco Park San Diego bubble, only to win three straight games before dropping Game 7.
“I mean, this is what you play for,” Baker said. “This is what you put in all the hours of hard work for. I’ve been on teams that run off on people. I’ve been on teams that had to do it the hard way like we’re doing it.”
In the National League Championship Series, the Philadelphia Phillies lead the the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 ahead of Monday’s Game 6 in Philadelphia. Taking the mound will be the D-backs’ Merrill Kelly vs. the Phillies’ Aaron Nola in a replay of Game 2, also at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies won, 10-0.
If the Phillies play the Astros again, it will be the first time in 46 years that the same two teams would meet in the World Series in back-to-back years. The last time was when the New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1977 and 1978 World Series. In a weird quirk of history, Baker was the left fielder for both of those losing Dodger teams. He won his only World Series as a player in 1981 when those two clubs faced off again, for the last time.
The Phillies aren’t looking past the D-backs, Phillies manager Rob Thomson said Sunday.
“I am immersed in what’s going on here and not getting too far ahead of myself, making sure we remain focused on Arizona and get this thing done,” he said.
If they don’t, there will be another Game 7 on Tuesday night.
“This team is hungry,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said about his D-backs. “They’re ready. I want to make sure that Monday we’re going to go out there and do our job to the best of our ability and the highest level possible.”
As far as the World Series schedule is concerned, the Astros, Rangers and Phillies all finished the regular season with 90 wins, and the D-backs had 84.
If the Astros again play the Phillies, the World Series will open in Philadelphia on Friday night. If the Rangers play the Phillies, the series will open in Arlington, Tex. If the D-backs are in, they will open at either Houston or Texas.
All of that will be revealed in the next few days. There’s no easy solution, Baker said.
“If it was that easy, I’d put it in this bottle instead of this Gatorade. I’d bottle it in this right here and sell it,” Baker said, pointing to a bottle of Gatorade on the interview podium. “Every day is different.”
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